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Joshua trees can live for hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of years in one of the U.S.’s most extreme climates: the Mojave Desert.

Climate change could dramatically reshape the fate of the Joshua tree. One model predicts that, if temperatures rise at the predicted rate, this iconic tree will disappear from 90% of its current range in California’s Joshua Tree National Park by the end of the century. Extinction for this tree—and many other desert species—is a real possibility.

Help scientists understand and preserve the fragile Mojave Desert by joining Joshua Tree National Park’s first long-term monitoring project. Hike among stunning rock formations as you identify and measure plants, including pinyon pines, junipers, and, of course, Joshua trees. You’ll also document sightings of the park’s resident reptiles, such as iguanas and desert tortoises, and birds, such as wrens and quails.

Under the expert guidance of two researchers with a combined 50 years of experience in the field, you’ll have the chance to interpret and shape the future of one of the natural world’s most precious places.

Lead scientists

Accommodation and food

Why the research is important

Why the research is important

Help build the world’s largest collection of data on the Mojave Desert ecosystem.

Scientists know that climate change could dramatically alter places that already depend on a delicate balance of resources, like the desert.

But they don’t know what, exactly, these changes will be. There are rising temperatures to consider, of course, but also the expected increases in wildfires, severe storms, and persistent droughts. With so many variables at play, scientists can’t say for certain how specific plants and animals will fare.

A volunteer measures vegetation.

Long-term monitoring of where certain species live and how big their populations are helps scientists find out what is actually happening in an ecosystem. Armed with this knowledge, they can make well-informed decisions about how to best conserve a fragile place like Joshua Tree National Park.

These researchers have their eyes on around 40 species throughout the park; some, like the Joshua tree, they expect to be very vulnerable to climate change, but others they expect could prove more adaptable and do just fine.

There’s only one way they can really find out, though: with your help. By joining up with these scientists, you’ll give them the people-power they need to conduct a comprehensive study of Joshua Tree National Park—to develop the complete picture that its conservation depends on.

About the research area

Joshua Tree National Park, United States, North America & Arctic

Joshua Tree National Park, in Southern California, has a stunning array of scenery because it’s at the meeting point of two different desert habitats, the Mojave and the Colorado. Visitors can see the difference: the higher-elevation Mojave has more vegetation, including the spiky-leaved Joshua tree, a kind of yucca. The lower-elevation Colorado appears more barren, with smaller scrub and cacti dotting the landscape. The Mojave portion of the park also houses most if its otherworldly rock formations. In wetter years, the desert bursts into bloom with wildflowers in the spring.

The park is also home to many reptiles (you’ll get to know them well during field work), coyotes, bobcats, mule deer, and bighorn sheep. Humans have also left their marks here, which remain protected in more than 500 archaeological sites across the park. Native Americans, cattle ranchers, miners, and homesteaders all passed through this isolated place. Now, it hosts more than a million visitors from around the world each year.

Lots of people visit Joshua Tree National Park, but you will experience it as none of them do: off the beaten path with an expert team of researchers. These researchers will set you up with iPad minis so that you can record your field observations with cutting-edge citizen science apps.

As part of the team, you will:

Hike to monitor desert vegetation. The researchers will drive as close as possible to one of the thirty 55-yard rectangular plots they’ve set up around the park, and you’ll hike the rest of the distance (for a total of about five miles a day of hiking). Once at the plot, you will tag each plant and identify its species, height, width, condition, and a host of other data points.

Trap, record, and safely release reptiles and amphibians. You’ll hike to pitfall traps—holes dug in the ground that little creatures fall into and can’t climb out of—and, with your iPad, record data on the lizards or other critters you find inside.

Explore the desert for birds and larger animals. You’ll walk along set observational paths (called transects) through the desert to look for bigger reptiles, like desert tortoises, and birds.

You’ll return to the field station in the late afternoon. After a home-cooked meal, you’ll have time to hear a presentation by a visiting researcher, or simply relax and take in the desert.

ACTIVITY LEVEL

MODERATE

The Scientists

Dr, Barrows in the sand dunes of the Coachella Valley.

MEET THE LEAD SCIENTIST

Cameron

Barrows

Associate Research Ecologist, University of California Riverside

ABOUT Cameron Barrows

Dr. Barrows, an environmental scientist with three decades of field work experience, led an Earthwatch Expedition in the 1980s doing research in northern California’s redwood and Douglas fir forests. Today, he’s taking teams into the deserts of Joshua Tree National Park.

MEET THE OTHER SCIENTISTS

Accommodations and Food

Accommodations and Food

Amazing wilderness views

Home-cooked meals

Stay at a research station near the Black Rock Visitor Center in Joshua Tree National Park, about five miles away from the shops and restaurants of the nearest town, Yucca Valley. You’ll sleep in either a house or a dorm, both of which have shared bathrooms, refrigerators, and Internet access.

The research staff will prepare your meals, and if you’re a cooking buff, you can jump in and help. You will pack lunches to take into the field each day, and a local restaurant will cater the last dinner of the expedition. Expect typical American fare: soups, stews, casseroles, salads, pasta, and California-style Mexican food.

“"Saving Joshua Trees Desert Species" Earthwatch”

The "Saving Joshua Trees Desert Species" Earthwatch was one of the best I've taken and I've been on quite a few. I love the idea of "Citizen Scientists" since I was a trained scientist for 30 years before I retired. The area was very interesting to me since I had never been there. The plant and animal life were also extremely interesting. And the relationship of both to climate change is very important.

Scientific data on what is happening to the plants and animals with increasing temperature is being gathered on this expedition. This is very significant research. The leaders were all skilled researchers and in addition were very nice people. I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of tasks and areas within the park where we worked. I hope that this expedition continues to run since gathering data in the exact same areas in future years is crucial to establishing relationships with global warming. In fact I hope to go on it again in the future.

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Erik Schiff|6/8/2016

“If you want to experience what it is like to do field biology, this is the project for you.”

If you want to experience what it is like to do field biology, this is the project for you. The scientist and field staff are all well rounded people and impart information far beyond just the project focus. The research on climate change is both relevant now and in the future. Volunteers rotate through the tasks from plant surveys, reptile surveys and pitfall traps giving each volunteer a full appreciation for the full extent of the research being done.

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Lowell Watkins|6/8/2016

“Half a League, Half a League”

When you walk into the field behind a team of experts it is not hard wonder if this was really a great idea. When the experts turn out to be friends and adopted family, you know you made the right decision.

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Warren Stortroen|6/8/2016

“JOSHUA TREE DESERT ADVENTURES”

The Joshua Tree expedition is one of the best! The desert is beautiful with imposing Joshua trees, wonderful rock formations, cactus gardens and gorgeous desert flowers wherever you look. The research scientists are great to work with and the tasks are meaningful and rewarding. I enjoyed every day with vegetation transects, small mammal and reptile trapping and reptile transects. My most exciting day was a reptile transect in the lower elevation Colorado desert part of the park when I spotted a desert tortoise and several lizards, including a basking desert iguana! I plan to return in 2017!

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Kathie Kelly|Tuesday, April 12, 2016

“An Eye-Opening Experience”

I just got back from this really eye-opening and fun expedition. Whether you have been to the desert before, or if this would be your first excursion into a desert, I think you will be amazed at the quantity and variety of life that you will encounter. Even more than the variety and abundance of life, the sheer exuberant, enthusiasm for desert life that the crew emanated was catching and made for a really fun and rewarding experience.

Be advised, the rating of strenuous for this expedition is not correct; we certainly did not ever walk 16 miles on a daily basis. Our average distance covered each day was between two to three miles. As long as you are comfortable being on your feet all day while in the field, walking over sandy, broken and irregular substrate, and occasionally kneeling, bending, stooping and/or sitting on the ground, you should be fine. The team is very aware of what might be challenging for expedition members and keeps a constant check that everyone is feeling comfortable with what they are doing and where they are going.

This is an expedition that will surely bring home to anyone who joins it, just how magical a place a desert can be. It has certainly given me a new perspective on what I thought was “an old familiar” place and it has shown me again the value of taking time to really stop and look carefully at the world around me.

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Larry Staub|Tuesday, June 02, 2015

“Tremendous Experience”

I had a great experience participating on the Saving Joshua Tree's Desert Species expedition. The Scientists were very engaging and were great teachers assisting in understanding the desert eco-system, the desert species and research they are doing on the threats to this environment. The work we were doing as volunteers was very meaningful and vital to the collection of research data.

I was lucky to have a great group of volunteers as team members as well. I would highly recommend this expedition to both the seasoned Earthwatch veteran and individual who is considering his or her first experience with Earthwatch.

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Nancy Cook|Sunday, April 26, 2015

“Awesome Work and Experience”

Joshua Tree National Park is an incredible place to visit and an even more incredible place to work for a week. The staff for the expedition were exceptional. This well-organized and conducted expedition left me with the satisfaction that one should have after a week of much education and hard work. I could not have wished for a better experience as a "citizen scientist.'

The park itself is diverse and beautiful. Certainly, I had worried that it would be hot and dusty work, but such was not the case. Everyday took us to another equally beautiful area, rich in biodiversity. The staff did a great job of varying our working locations to match the weather: higher, cooler elevations on warmer days; lower, warmer ones on cooler, windier days.

The tasks were as varied and interesting as the park itself. I thought I would want to work only with plant identification and measurement, but enjoyed just as much hunting for and helping to identify birds and reptiles, and helping to monitor and empty the pitfall traps.

Not only were the expedition staff a pleasure to work for and with, but the team volunteers were all wonderful. I would enjoy finding myself on an expedition with any of those folks I met during my Saving Joshua Tree's Desert Species week.

If you considering an Earthwatch expedition this is the one to try.

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Warren Stortroen|Monday, April 20, 2015

“ADVENTURES WITH JOSHUS TREE'S DESERT SPECIES”

The Mojave Desert was beautiful in the early morning as we set out to check the pit-fall traps! We drove through areas of imposing Joshua trees, spectacular rock formations, cactus "gardens", and an array of red, yellow, white and blue desert flowers. Then, at a rocky wash we left the road and hiked to the layout of the first ten bucket traps. We checked the traps for rodents, reptiles and scorpions and, if the trap was occupied, Kristen, park biologist, examined the animal for identity, sex and condition while a volunteer recorded the data. There were several different lizards, some mice and a few scorpions.

At one set of traps one of the volunteers scared a lizard out of a creosote bush and right into one of the buckets. We complimented her on scoring an unassisted goal! A small Side-blotched Lizard didn't want to leave me - when I released her in the shade of a bush she scrambled right back up my arm! I tried again and again she ended up on my shoulder. After people took pictures, I tried again and was successful!

On a reptile transect survey I spotted some desert tortoise tracks and pretty soon one of the volunteers spotted her in the shade of a yucca plant, Everyone on the team was pleased to see this animal in its natural habitat!

I was able to enjoy two days on vegetation teams, two days on pit-fall trap teams and one day on the reptile survey. This was a very well run expedition in a beautiful area. I really enjoyed it and hope to return next year!

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David Cook|Saturday, April 11, 2015

“It's Much More Than Joshua Trees”

This expedition is more than you expect. If you are concerned about the location - don't be! Go and embrace the grandeur and diversity of this unique environment. Delve, first hand, into the many facets of this expedition's fascinating research. You'll be in good hands. You'll be glad you signed on. A first-rate experience.

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Micheline Leroux|Thursday, April 09, 2015

“Incredible desert”

Desert is everything but not empty. Life is everywhere, strong and fragile. The scientists are amazing to teach us all we need to know to become more confident to help. They share their passion and their concerns for the living species. They are good cooks too! I enjoyed every moment with them and with the dream team of March (1a).